


Homecoming

by Braincoins



Series: Shallura Holiday Month 2017 [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, SHM 2017, Shallura Holiday Month 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 17:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12939834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Braincoins/pseuds/Braincoins
Summary: Allura comes home





	Homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 7's "Homecoming" Prompt for Shallura Holiday Month 2017
> 
> I fully expect y'all to be mad at me  
> ======================

            “I… I know I need to be brave, but…” She sniffled. “I can’t stop crying. I’m sorry.”

            Allura summoned up her strength to smile for Aetheria. She didn’t have enough to reach over and tousle her granddaughter’s hair one more time. “You have nothing to be sorry for. You are still a brave girl, even if you cry. Your grandfather taught me that.”

            “Mom.” The hushed voice was her son, Alfor. “I don’t know how we’re going to manage all of this without you.”

            “You’ll think of a way,” she told him. “You’re so much like your father.”

            “But why do you hafta die, Gramma?” Takashi didn’t understand; he was the youngest of her grandchildren.

            “I’ve lived a very long life, sweetheart. Longer than your grandfather and our friends, longer than most Alteans ever did. But everything that lives dies eventually, even the stars.”

            “I don’t want you to go.”

            “I know, baby. I’m sorry. I’d stay if I could.”

            “She’s running out of time,” Yumiko said quietly. She was grateful for the ability to die in her own bed instead of in a hospital; better still for her last physician to be her own daughter.

            “My knowledge is uploaded, if you ever have need of it. Do as you see fit with my remains.”

            “You don’t care at all?” Alfor asked.

            She shrugged weakly. “I want you all to do what you feel is best. I want what brings you closure, what helps you feel better.”

            “But…”

            “My body will only be a shell. It won’t be me.” It was getting harder to talk.

            Alfor was on the verge of tears. “I love you, Mom.” This spawned a chorus of love and affection from her family, surrounding her deathbed.

            “And I love all of you,” she said. “Go. Be great.”

            She closed her eyes.

 

 

            When she opened them, she did not recognize where she was. It looked like dawn on a planet she’d never been to before, but somehow it felt… right. It felt like home, even though she had never seen anything like it.

            Juniberries in full bloom, along with myriad other flowers she couldn’t name. Trees – some familiar, some alien – dotting the landscape. The sky was clear, gorgeously-painted by the rising sun. There were the faint stirrings of birdsong.

            “Welcome home,” a familiar voice said behind her.

            She turned. “Mother?” But then she was scooped up into a tight hug.

            “I’ve missed you so much, my brave and beautiful girl.”

            She felt tears sting her eyes. “I’ve missed you, too, Mother. Where are we?”

            Her mother pulled away enough to smile at her. “Home, dear. A representation of it, anyway. We’ve been preparing it for you.”

            “We?”

            But then she was practically tackled. She and Mom were picked up in strong arms and spun around. “There’re my girls!”

            She laughed. “Father!” When he set her down, she paid him in kind, hugging him with what felt like every ounce of strength she had… and she suddenly had more. So much more. It was like warmth and vitality was returning to her.

            “Oh, my daughter, you have no idea how happy I am to see you again.”

            “That makes two of us!” a third voice chimed in. She turned to it and gawked.

            “Coran! Coran, you’re here, too?!” Her father released her so she could spring towards him. “Oh, things have not been the same since you died!”

            “I imagine not! How much more tomfoolery have you gotten up to without me to keep an eye on you?” he asked as he hugged her back.

            She laughed. “SO much. You’d’ve been aghast at it all, I’m sure.”

            “You see?” he said over her shoulder to her parents. “What’d I tell you?”

            Her mother laughed. “She is a lot like her father.”

            “Hey, don’t blame me for this!”

            “Oh, I absolutely do, dear.”

            Coran released her. “How do you like the place?”

            “It’s gorgeous, but I don’t know some of these plants…”

            And a warmly-amused voice said, “That’s because they’re from Earth.”

            She turned to it and saw him there. Shiro, just as she’d first seen him, awakening in that pod after ten thousand years’ stasis, except that he was smiling.

            She breathed out his name and started towards him, but he ran up to meet her halfway. She picked him up and spun him around in a hug, and when she let him have his feet again, he kissed her. She was full-on crying now, but the tears were happy, and her heart felt like it would burst.

            “I’ve missed you so much, beloved,” he whispered against her lips.

            “Not half so as I’ve missed you.”

            He groaned and straightened up. “Really? You _just_ got here, and we’re already competing again?” But he was trying to stifle a smile; he never could quite do it. Not with her, anyway.

            “You’re probably out of practice,” she charged, letting herself grin fully even as the tears continued to leak out.

            He brushed one away gently. “I don’t know about that; Alfor’s been keeping me on my toes.”

            “Absolutely!” her father bellowed. “Only the best for my daughter, after all!”

            “Come on, we have a lot of catching up to do,” her mother said.

            “This way!” Coran declared, heading off.

            Shiro gave her another quick kiss. “Welcome home.” He dropped his hand into hers.

            She gave it a squeeze. “It’s so good to be here.”


End file.
